from Z to A in ACTION! -an essay on making ideas and dreams come true

On August 1st, 2007 Henriette Weber wrote:

I have used a part of my summerholiday to write this essay on action – to research what it takes to get from a-z in action or as I have called it "from Z(ero) to A(ction) in ACTION!".
This means defining some of my main steps necessary to generate ideas and putting them to work.

For a very long time I have been thinking about working my way through the process of idea creation to creativity and finally to action. In my world it's a petty when a good idea goes to waste without getting to test a part of the actual idea out.

Now for a definition of action – as my good friend J.C. Fischer and I came up with for a 6 word story ” babysteps will get you there too”.

In this case it means that small actions inside yourself will lead to larger actions externally, if the larger actions feels right. So the scalability of actions are really important.
If we take the word ”act” it means that you are ”doing something” about a given idea. That something could be anything from reflection on an idea to bringing the idea to life by making it happen in real life.

This essay is used as mapping out a structure for a ”possible” book on the subject – so if you have any good input about what is missing – please let me know =)








So how do you generate ideas ?

Ideas has a touch of magic and dreams.

An idea to me is a magical feeling that you get when you think about something new. A good idea to a person, is an idea that you decide, you would like to act upon - because you think it's a good idea. Still most of the good ideas stays at the good idea stage (and never makes it to action). So how do you spur your idea into action ?

Creativity

Creativity is a constant ”stepstone” in the action process – not just a tool to spur ideas into action. You need creativity to generate ideas. In the words of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: ”creativity is interaction”.

Most important to me is the interactions between the people you see, the culture you live in and your own creative vibe.

How can you create a better creative vibe within yourself ?

I have made a creativity 100 list a while back – which was a 100 point list to get more creative.

My favorites from that list are :

- Creativity means creative choices of inclusion and exclusion (Robert Mckee)
- Creative action speaks louder than creative words
- Be a firestarter a twisted firestarter
- Eliminate the word ”against” in your mind. Don’t be against smoking or against war – be FOR health and FOR peace.

Let’s say you’ve got the idea now, and you’ve got that creative vibe going – what’s next ?

You still have quite a way to go to get to action. All steps of ”z-a” is small actions themselves but the place we want to get at, is where people can see you are ”making” something – instead of ”just talking” about the idea.

Talk and listen... ( trust me you need your community =)

So when you have the idea and you are ”flowing” it – start talking and introducing it to various people to get feedback. Don’t think about action just yet - just listen to what people are telling you.

Listening is just as important as talking in action-hunting.

When people are saying the same over and over again and marking out the same assets and faults of your idea – it’s time to springle the idea with a little action.

an Idea description

Change the thing about the idea that people say ( and you feel) is broken, and use the assets to make an idea description – you’re probably going to change the idea description a thousand times during the idea stage but that’s quite okay.
Things I normal put into my idea descriptions are :
- what’s the point of this idea?
- Why is it going to save a tiny part of the world
- How can I make people like it ?
- Who will like it the most (aka. Who is the primary target group)
- What is stopping you from going into action ?
- What are the next steps to be taken.

Review and rewrite the description everytime you idea ”get stuck” and is more likely to go down the drain then to action =)

Remarkability ( be different)...

For this to work – you don’t have to think in ways that other people hasn’t done before. But you have to be damn good at creative puzzles. Creative puzzles is the way you mix and match tendencies, functioning ideas, money-earning ideas into your own. Take your inspiration from places you had no intention of going.

So when you think of being remarkable – you don’t really have to go all the way and reinvent the deep dish again – you can settle for a creative puzzle – which is just as unique. Remarkability can also be a unique way of putting together puzzles.

Turn everything ...

Ask questions upside down, inside out.

How would a teapot see your living room ? – what would a cat do in this and this situation.

Find the coolest people as muses and ask yourself questions like ”how would Elvis Presley write this book” – or ” how would the queen of Saba sing ” anarchy in the U.K) – quite amusing and a grand way to put yourself in new shoes.

This essay is not ending.

I will continously add to it. But this is all I’ve got for now, from my balcony in surburbia Denmark =)



creative sources for this post:

Hugh macleod : "how to be creative"

James Wood Young: " technique for getting ideas"

crossposted on tensoriana.org and henrietteweber.com [creativity, innovation]